


If We Can Sparkle

by micehell



Category: Velvet Goldmine
Genre: AU (fusions with TPM & Down With Love respectively), Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-21
Updated: 2010-11-21
Packaged: 2017-11-12 00:18:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/484520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/micehell/pseuds/micehell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Curt and Arthur retold.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If We Can Sparkle

Title from David Bowie, for obvious reasons, yes?

~*~

When Arthur had been seventeen, he'd met what he was sure was the love of his life. Certainly not a mother's dream, with his dyed blond hair, the black nails, the sneer and attitude, but Arthur had known how to look past the (very pretty, he thought, regardless of what his mother said) exterior to the man underneath. And they'd connected, one night on a rooftop, two souls meeting as one.

Well, okay, it was more like two bodies meeting as one, but Arthur had been sure the rest would follow. Only it hadn't. What had been the most magical moment of his life, complete with multiple orgasms and flying saucers (though he had to admit that last part might have been the acid), had ended with a kiss and being told to make a wish that hadn't come true.

Other, perhaps saner, people would have chalked it up to youthful experience and gone on with their lives. Other, perhaps not quite as sane, people would have brooded over it for years, going so far as to become a reporter in another country, and then finally meeting the man of their dreams again and having a moment, before they both went on their way, resolution acquired. Arthur, not particularly sane (and he couldn't really blame that on the acid, though he thought his mother had a lot to do with it), decided to change his life, becoming a totally different person, this time suave, successful, and desirable, instead of the spotty, shy, and miserable one he'd been before. He also decided to change his name and his general appearance and write a book that would be so successful that the man of his dreams (a reporter in another country) would absolutely have to interview him. He also decided that he would be so suave, successful, and desirable, that the man of his dreams would absolutely have to fall in love with him, at which point Arthur (with that problem sanity, thank you, Mum), would leave him with a kiss and a wish that wouldn't come true.

It was a lot of effort to go through for one bad date, but Arthur was dedicated. He worked hard for ten years, honing the skills necessary for his revenge, and he laughed (a tiny bit maniacally, but suavely all the same) when he finally got the call from Curt's publisher setting up that fateful day.

Arthur spent most of the week leading up to the fateful day planning. His wardrobe, his cologne, what he would say, how he would say it, what he would eat at dinner, what he wouldn't eat, etc etc etc. It was exhausting, but the past ten years really had honed the revenge skills, and when he finally arrived at the 4-Star restaurant that would be the beginning of Curt's fall, Arthur felt prepared for anything.

Sadly, Arthur hadn't spent the last ten years honing _Curt_ into a new person, still as direct and odd and yet sweet (though, thankfully, not as prone to acid anymore) as he'd always been. Arthur felt a little pang in his honed heart at seeing him, the hair still dyed blond, nails still black, the sneer and attitude tempered into a cynical smile (but still very pretty), but then he firmly reminded himself that his revenge had nothing to do with _Arthur_ falling in love and got right back on track.

A track that was derailed by Curt, directly and oddly and yet sweetly saying, "Arthur! It's been years. How are you doing?"

The rest of the evening pretty much went downhill for Arthur from there. He tried denial at first, but Curt had been supremely unfooled. Arthur gave up denial after a brief restroom brainstorm, re-honing his plan into Curt falling in love with the boy who'd got away scenario, only to be reminded, in Curt's direct but sweet way, that Arthur hadn't so much got away as they'd just not got together anymore. Another bathroom break (and a brief but embarrassing talk with the waiter, where Arthur assured him that, no, the food hadn't made him sick) later, and Arthur had re-honed his re-honed plan into Curt being lured into another night on a roof, where Arthur would then be the one to leave Curt. Curt had turned him down, saying he had other plans for the evening, but maybe they could get together later.

Alone in the 4-Star restaurant, Curt another memory that left too soon, and Arthur was neither suave, successful, nor desirable, ten years of his life wasted on a moment that wouldn't come. Figuring that drunk trumped pretty much everything, Arthur took a long pull on his beer, not even minding that it was American crap, and nearly choked on something that dropped out of the bottle. When he spit it out in his hand, it smelled like hops and had a light coat of foam over, but Arthur still recognized Curt's pin, the one he'd worn that first night. The one Curt had sworn was magic. It might even be magic, because Arthur felt all those years melt away, all the honing and the revenge and his mother's voice in his head telling him that Curt would only break his heart, gone in a moment. It might even be magic because Arthur still felt that pang in his heart, that had been there ten years ago, that had been there today, unmoved by any amount of honing.

It might even be magic because waiting outside the restaurant, directly and oddly and sweetly, was Curt, supremely unfooled, but smiling that same smile he had ten years ago when he'd first told Arthur, "Make a wish."

And magic or not, this time the wish came true.

/end this bit of the story

~*~

When Curt had first taken Arthur as an apprentice, the Council had had serious objections. At seventeen, Arthur was too old to start training, he was too mired in fantasy, he was too boring (that had been Yoda, who always had favored bad boys over the shy, quiet type). They had also thought that Curt, barely ten years older, was too young to train him. But Curt had just ignored them like he always did (though he did commiserate with Yoda, since he kind of liked bad boys himself), and gone on with the training.

After about ten years, during which the Republic and the Order had failed to fall and Arthur had failed to turn (and Curt had continued right on in ignoring them), the Council had been somewhat desperate to justify their earlier concern, and flailed about a bit in order to find a reason for it. It was Mace, watching the way that Arthur tended to stare after Curt when he walked away, even though he couldn't see his ass through the robes (or at least Mace had never been able to manage it), who finally figured it out.

They called Arthur before them, using their solemnest solemn faces and the way the seats of the Council surrounded him to make sure Arthur was taking them as seriously as they wanted (ten years with Curt having eroded some of Arthur's natural politeness and attention to authority).

Mace started, in his best badass voice. "It has come to our attention that your feelings toward you master are... inappropriate. Considering the fact that you might never have properly learned the Code due to your _excessively_ late start to the Order-"

"And because follow it your master rarely does," Yoda added quietly, laughing a little, since the very bad boy Curt had always been one of his favorites.

But Mace just carried on as if he hadn't said anything. "We thought you might not know that a relationship between master and apprentice is forbidden. There are no exceptions. It was this very problem that got Curt's master kicked out of the Order and nearly your master as well, so unless you want to follow that same dark path, you'll meditate on your feelings and release them to the Force, as a good Jedi would."

Arthur had meditated for hours after that, but all it had done was make him hornier, since every time he tried to release his feelings for his master to the Force, he kept seeing Curt in his mind's eye. How pretty he was, how hot, especially when he smiled that wicked smile that made dignitaries and world leaders the galaxy over agree to whatever it was Curt had suggested. Who was Arthur to resist Curt's Jedi Sex Whammy when those far older and more experienced had crumpled at Curt's knees?

As he had for the past ten years, Arthur took the problem to his master, having to confess both his feelings and his ignorance about the Code in one conversation, but not seeing any way around it. Offering what he saw as a possible solution, Arthur said, "You could knight me early, and then we wouldn't be breaking the rules."

He said it fast, needing to get it out before he lost his nerve, but Curt took his time to reply, making Arthur's heart sink with every second of silence, sure it meant that Curt didn't want to... _get around the Code_ with his apprentice.

"I'm pretty sure my knighting you before you're ready would be against the Code as well. Not that I've ever bothered to actually _check_ that, but still." Curt's answer didn't outright say he wasn't interested in his apprentice, but then his voice, with its normal, lazy drawl, not to mention the answer he gave, didn't really deny it either.

But years with Curt had pretty much taught Arthur that he wasn't going to get anything if he didn't outright ask for it, so he kept making suggestions, getting a little punchy as Curt kept coming up with horribly reasonable arguments against them, and as his creativity was stretched past its limits. "Overthrowing the Republic? Storming the Council room and exposing Mace and Yoda's torrid love affair?"

That finally made Curt do something but shoot Arthur's ideas down, face screwed up in a grimace. "If you're going to keep creeping me out like that, I won't tell you my plan for getting around the rule."

Arthur was so hopped up (and kind of creeped out as well, because just the thought of Mace in a torrid affair with anyone was hard to take) by then that he almost missed what Curt had implied. But he immediately promised, on threat of losing his _Ziggy Stardust_ album, to never creep Curt out again if he would just tell Arthur how they could do it. Since he was still hopped up, he kept trying to clarify things, "Not do _it_ it, but the it that leads up to the _it_ it-", but Curt managed to cut him off before it got too out of hand.

"It's easy. Step 1 is I take you back in my bedroom right now and fuck you into the mattress. Step 2 is we eat some cold pizza and have a beer. Step 3 is you fuck me over the living room couch. Step 4 is pretty much a repeat of the previous steps, just interspersed with work and stuff. Step 5 is if the Council, other than Yoda, who would just ask for pictures... or maybe to join in... but my point was if the Council should find out before you're knighted, we just deny it if we can, and ignore them if we can't. How's that work for you?"

Arthur thought about it, and then thought about it some more. Most of the steps sounded really, really good, but the last one was confusing him, even beyond the being slightly concerned about Yoda joining in. "Um, but won't we be kicked out of the Order if they catch us? Didn't your master have to leave, and you almost did too, when they caught you and him together?"

Curt laughed. "The first the Council knew about my master's other hobby, besides quelling problems all over the galaxy, that is, was when he handed in his resignation, telling them he was going to open a brothel out on the Outer Rim. He then insisted on making a crude pun about rimming, and finished up by telling them he'd fucked every one of his apprentices, even the one that looked like a rock with legs, though, really, I think he was lying about that one."

It certainly didn't _quite_ match what Mace had told him, and Arthur was a tiny bit suspicious about what the Council was up to, but he still felt he needed one thing cleared up. "But you fucked your master, right? And you almost got kicked out?"

Arthur was a little less than happy at the blissful smile on Curt's face when he nodded. "Oh, hell yeah, I fucked him. And he fucked me. Hmmm, step 3 came up a lot. It was especially good because he was very tall and all beardy and stuff, and he could do the best things with his tongue..." He paused, looking rueful, probably because of the stricken look that Arthur was sure was on his face. When he continued, Curt was much more matter of fact. "But I didn't almost get kicked out because of it. That was because I kicked a senator named Palpatine in the balls when he didn't want to take no for an answer. Apparently the Council felt I showed a lack of discretion. I didn't much care, especially since my master had told me I always could work for him if I ever got kicked out."

That last bit made Arthur a little nervous, since he seriously didn't want for them to get kicked out if Curt was going to go work for his former, very tall and beardy master. He figured he'd have to work on Step 3 a lot to make sure Curt forgot all about that offer. But in the meantime, he took Curt's hand in his and solemnly said, "I'll be sure to meditate on what you've said, Master."

They both were laughing at that one when Curt took him back to his bedroom. After he'd been thoroughly Step 1-ed as promised, Arthur ate his pizza and drank his beer, and imagined all the many wonderful ways that Curt could teach him to break the Code.

/end this bit of the story, too


End file.
